DARE to Lead Change project launches to build positive relations

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Wednesday, 14 March 2018

A new project, DARE to Lead Change (Dialogues about Race and Ethnicity) was launched on Tuesday 13th March at IFA Headquarters, Windsor Park, Belfast. This project is led by Bryson Intercultural, in partnership with TIDES Training and Consultancy. It is funded by the EU’s PEACE IV programme, managed by SEUPB. Pictured at the Launch and Daring to Lead Change is Adrian Bird from the Resurgam Trust in Lisburn, Mansoreh Abolhassasni (originally from Iran) and Eileen Rooney (an Irish Traveller).

The aim of DARE is to build, improve and sustain positive relationships with local people and their neighbours from different cultures and countries.

The project offers local people in communities, schools and the workplace an opportunity to participate in dialogues about race and ethnicity. Interested people are encouraged to get involved and avail of free trainingon Good Relations and Understanding Diversity.

Jo Marley, Director of Bryson Intercultural said:

Bryson is delighted to launch Dialogues about Race and Ethnicity (DARE). Our ambition is to promote peace and reconciliation by engaging different cultural, ethnic and religious communities in a sustained and meaningful dialogue that will change our shared knowledge and perceptions of each other.

We will use training and mentoring to equip local people and Black and Minority Ethnic individuals to become Cultural and Community Champions. They will work alongside each other and DARE to lead different intercommunity conversations on a large, medium and small scale.

Over the life of the project we aim to engage with over 2,000 people across Northern Ireland and the border counties.

Welcoming the project Gina McIntyre, CEO of the Special EU Programmes Body said:

This project will help address many of the negative attitudes that exist in relation to race and ethnicity. It will challenge stereotypes, break down barriers and bring people together. Reflecting the core aims of the EU’s PEACE IV Programme it has been designed to encourage meaningful contact between people from different communities.

Salwa, originally from Yemen, has made her home here and recently completed the DARE to Lead Change training to become a Cultural and Community Champion:

I like the will of the people in Northern Ireland... they are working to build their society and I feel that I have this opportunity to share in building the society that I have chosen to live in. This is the place I can prove myself and reach my goals. Working well with the community will empower me more.... For me, I like to be part of this wonderful active team, because I believe in their vision and challenges. That is why I like to be involved.

Match funding for the project has been provided by the Northern Ireland Executive and the Department of Community and Rural Development in Ireland.